Defence Of Provocation

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Provocation is a defence which can be used to downgrade sentencing from murder to manslaughter, using the defence that the victim provoked them into the crime. Although in some cases, the intent to kill is evident, guilty offenders can still reduce jail time. Currently, Queensland is the only state that continues to allow this law as a defence. Queensland should follow the footsteps of the other states and abolish the defence of provocation, as it is being frequently misused by guilty murderers to diminish jail time. The defence of provocation should be abolished as if there is the intention to kill, then it should not be named something else when someone acts due to loss of self control.

Provocation is defined as any wrongful act or insult of such a nature as to be likely when done to an ordinary person to deprive the person of the power of self-control, and to induce the person to assault the person by whom the act or insult is done or offered (http://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/86096/sd-bb-84-provocation-ss-268-269.pdf). For provocation to be used as a defence to downgrade a charge from murder to manslaughter, accused must prove, that it was a provocative incident, or something was said to the accused causing a retaliation. Queensland is the only state which continue to allow provocation as defence, as …show more content…
Every other state has abolished provocation so why does Queensland not follow their footsteps? Too many murderers are being lightly treated because of this defence. There are many cases where the defence is being abused such as the Maryborough case where the gay panic defence has been misused to reduce jail time. If the defence is not abolished then we will continue to see guilty murders escape the jail sentences they

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